Back in May we enjoyed Family Fun Night with the dudes at school, and they greatly enjoyed the cotton candy machine (in front of which Henry had anxiously parked himself ages before anyone else lined up). This little video montage got stuck in my camera until now; enjoy!

Our shovel-lovin' lads Finn (armed with Root Chop) and Hen (armed with Seymour) teamed up with Dante, Vienna, and a whole squadron of random lakeside kids to turn the shore of Lake Tahoe into an elaborate system of canals, jumps, and other earthworks. Here's a little taste from the shoreline:

Up in Tahoe I rang in the start of my 40's just two days after our friend Hans started his 50's. Just as last year we shared a cake, and this year Margot & the boys took the sting out of mortality by giving me "Benny's Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP!!" from The Lego Movie—a loving throwback to the 80's-vintage sets I had growing up. Amazingly (miraculously!) despite our cabin being darker than Carlsbad Caverns, we built the beast and got it home without losing any parts.

Here's a handful of photos from the festivities—including impatient Henry realizing that yes, he will actually get to eat some cake 🙂 .

I like to go beyond what a simple photo can capture, so I really enjoy capturing 360º spherical panoramas of our travels. (The fam is nice to indulge me as I lag behind on hikes, etc. in order to make these.) To look around some of the Lake Tahoe-area sights we encountered last week, you can click and drag on any of the photos below, or—better still—you can click the "View on Google Maps" link on each one to view it much larger.

Few people really want to age, but getting to spend the final sunset of my thirties with these chaps on the shores of Lake Tahoe—well, that wasn't too bad. 🙂 Here's a little gallery of the boys digging their giant earthworks project, returning a tiny clam to the water (Henry was quite sentimental about this), and "Ninja Warrior" Finn clamoring up the pier & leaping into the sand.

Greetings from Lake Tahoe! Despite facing some unseasonably cool & blustery weather, we've been spending a good amount of time down by the lake. We've become paddleboard "lords" only in the most ironic sense, but it's been fun zipping around the long, very shallow stretch in front of our cabin. Here are a few pics.

We had a ball checking out Berkeley's Kite Festival last weekend. The boys were especially intrigued by the enormous octopodes stretching their tentacles out more than 100 feet. Check out a little gallery of the proceedings.